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Donal O'Donovan

@donalodonovan.bsky.social
318 followers 228 following 98 posts

Business Editor Irish Independent & Sunday Independent

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Donal O'Donovan @donalodonovan.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
The big positive for Govt of Irish cabinets being capped at 15 members is the max of 30 feet that ministers can shoot themselves in. Semi-state chiefs in line for huge pay top-ups after controversy over €430,000 for Housing Tsar www.independent.ie/irish-news/p...
independent.ie
Now 30 semi-state chiefs in line for huge pay top-ups after controversy over €430,000 for Housing Tsar
The heads of 30 semi-state bodies are now potentially in line for massive pay increases, hard on the heels of a reported €430,000 for the Housing Tsar.
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Donal O'Donovan @donalodonovan.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
Sad to see this. 'The Feast of the Goat' in particular is the most terrifying exploration of the inner working of the court of a dictatorship. www.bbc.com/news/article...
bbc.com
Mario Vargas Llosa: Giant of Latin American literature
The Peruvian was called a "divinely gifted story-teller" when he won the Nobel in 2010.
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Sharon O'Dea @sharonodea.com · 12/04/2025
I’m glad people are out there asking the important questions about emerging technologies. Such as “why DO so many AI company logos look like bum holes?” velvetshark.com/ai-company-l...
velvetshark.com
Why do AI company logos look like buttholes?
A humorous exploration of the uncanny resemblance between AI company logos and human anatomy. Discover why circular, gradient-based designs dominate the AI industry, and what this design convergence t...
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Donal O'Donovan @donalodonovan.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
In markets jargon what we are now seeing in equities is classed as an 'absolute shit show'.
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Donal O'Donovan @donalodonovan.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
Not too far from where the Ardagh chalice turned up.
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Donal O'Donovan @donalodonovan.bsky.social · 25/03/2025
And the name of a famous former Cricklewood dance hall.
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Donal O'Donovan @donalodonovan.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
And Musk's status shifts from kingmaker to client.
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Donal O'Donovan @donalodonovan.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
And promising to rebuild autobahns! It gets weirder by the day on this side of the looking glass..
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Donal O'Donovan @donalodonovan.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
This is huge. By way of comparison Angela Merkel was just about convinced, eventually, to do just barely enough to prevent a collapse of the euro after years of the debt crisis spiral.
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Donal O'Donovan @donalodonovan.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
Thanking the driver from half way down the bus as you exit via the middle door is entirely performative, there I've said it.
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Donal O'Donovan @donalodonovan.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
And the SNL people must be incredibly sound, to be widely regarded as makers of comedy.
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Donal O'Donovan @donalodonovan.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
They'll be hiring them back as over paid anr under interested consultants per every corporate mass cull in business history.
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Donal O'Donovan @donalodonovan.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
My take on project cabin - and why it really means operation shanty www.independent.ie/opinion/comm...
independent.ie
Donal O’Donovan: ‘Chic chalets’ will rapidly degenerate into backyard hovels and make a dire housing situation worse
Desperate times call for desperate measures, but blanket licensing to allow subdivision of housing plots and a proliferation of back yard cabins is beyond desperate – it is idiotic.
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Donal O'Donovan @donalodonovan.bsky.social · 11/02/2025
Excellent. A childish motion that won't build a single shed. Take that housing crisis.
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Jacob Aron @jjaron.bsky.social · 11/02/2025
Why would you report as fact a claim that even the person making it admits is entirely made up? www.thetimes.com/business-mon...
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Donal O'Donovan @donalodonovan.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
Did we change things so a Tanaiste can appoint senators now or is that we've all just abandoned the idea of having a Constitution?
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Donal O'Donovan @donalodonovan.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
Le vieux chief de la route difficile, as we say in English. www.ft.com/content/d18a...
ft.com
French budget approved after François Bayrou survives censure vote
Prime minister fends off his first no-confidence ballot and pushes through spending plans
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Donal O'Donovan @donalodonovan.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
Wait, if they sack all the spooks where does that leave Palintir? www.wsj.com/politics/nat...
wsj.com
CIA Offers Buyout to Entire Workforce as Part of Trump Makeover
The agency offered buyouts to its entire workforce in what officials said is a bid to bring it in line with Trump’s priorities, including targeting drug cartels.
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Kiki Yablon @kikiyablon.bsky.social · 02/02/2025
this is modern journalism. @wired.com "built software to systematically check the status of 1,374 government domains. The tool runs periodic scans, tracking whether sites remain accessible, how their servers respond, and if the domain names still resolve."
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Jason Corcoran @jasoncorcoran.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
Russian billionaire #oligarch Suleyman Kerimov held a stake in SpaceX while he was sanctioned - good scoop from Bloomberg www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
bloomberg.com
Russian Oligarch Held Stake in Musk’s SpaceX Through Trust While He Was Sanctioned
Citigroup administered Heritage Trust and decided it didn’t need to block the trust’s assets after Suleyman Kerimov was sanctioned in 2018, according to people with knowledge of the matter
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Donal O'Donovan @donalodonovan.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
A smart assessment, though I'd caution that Ireland is certainly not immune from anti-Semitism either.
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Donal O'Donovan @donalodonovan.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
You'd need a heart of stone not to laugh etc OpenAI says it has evidence China’s DeepSeek used its model to train competitor - giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... via @FT
giftarticle.ft.com
OpenAI says it has evidence China’s DeepSeek used its model to train competitor
White House AI tsar David Sacks raises possibility of alleged intellectual property theft
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Karen Hao @karenhao.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
So it doesn’t matter if you're a company in the US, China, or elsewhere. DeepSeek should be a cue to pivot HARD toward investing in far more efficient methods of AI development. Even if you care nothing about community & climate impacts, it’s just better business. 19/
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Gideon Rachman @gideonrachman.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
On Thursday night I was at a dinner in Davos, where the example of US primacy given was that Nvidia’s market cap is bigger than the entire German stock market. Someone remarked that Europe’s only hope is that the Davos consensus (this time about US primacy) is always wrong. And lo…
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 26/01/2025
This is why you don't design curricula around "jobs of the future". We can't predict the future but we do know what general skills and knowledge will be valuable whatever job you do.
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James Bloodworth @jamesbloodworth.bsky.social · 26/01/2025
‘Learn to code’ Should’ve done a proper degree like sociology or political science
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Donal O'Donovan @donalodonovan.bsky.social · 26/01/2025
If you need a sense of how resistant Irish people are to infrastructure changes just check out reaction to the renaming / rationalising of Dublin bus routes. Yes, its nice you first shifted your now wife/played a walkman/mitched off school on the 46A. No, its not a reason to keep the route.
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Donal O'Donovan @donalodonovan.bsky.social · 24/01/2025
But also, 'How many radical leftists does it take to screw in a lightbulb' is a really old joke. A] 'The lightbulb is only a symptom, the whole system must be changed so join in our chant 'down with darkness, down with darkness..'
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Donal O'Donovan @donalodonovan.bsky.social · 22/01/2025
The idea they're entitled to take opposition speaking time while clearly part of the government is beyond ludicrous. The opposition are absolutely correct to stand their ground.
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Mark Little @marklittle.bsky.social · 20/01/2025
“Just what level of exuberant disinhibition led Musk to this moment or why this unmistakable gesture came so naturally to him … well, that’s really not my problem. Everyone knows what they saw here.” talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/elon-...
talkingpointsmemo.com
Elon Goes Full Seig Heil In Clarifying Moment
I was at the gym this afternoon when I saw out of...
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Donal O'Donovan @donalodonovan.bsky.social · 17/01/2025
A run down of the new Govt but the failure to restore Defence as a full cabinet role is the most glaring and alarming decision. Ireland is sleepwalking into a potential catastrophe. www.independent.ie/irish-news/e...
independent.ie
Fionnán Sheahan: Who gets the poisoned chalice? What line-up of ministers in new cabinet might look like
Now the make-up of the Government is clear with Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Independents, the next item on the agenda is who gets into cabinet. Here is who is in contention and what the Cabinet mig...
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Donal O'Donovan @donalodonovan.bsky.social · 14/01/2025
Wonder which one will get it?
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Katie Martin @katie0martin.ft.com · 14/01/2025
The Edgelord Bro Mind Virus is breaking containment, as evidenced by this brave and yet curiously unnamed truth warrior. Take precautions against brain rot: stay at least 2 metres away from giant morons, read books, and wash your hands. on.ft.com/3WityvA
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Adrian Weckler @adrianweckler.bsky.social · 11/01/2025
Delta’s new boarding system at the gate doesn’t require your boarding pass — a camera scans your face and it beeps yes or no and you proceed. And that’s it. Oddly, it’s a bit slower than the normal ticket/app scans. Also a bit… dystopian?
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The Empty City @davidallengreen.bsky.social · 11/01/2025
New The coming battle between social media and the state Behind the alignment of X and Meta with Trump is a cold business logic — and a position of weakness rather than strength By me, in todays @financialtimes.com www.ft.com/content/917c...
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Gareth Gore @garethgore.bsky.social · 08/01/2025
For the first time, one of the hundreds of victims of Opus Dei’s cruel system of grooming and coercing impoverished young girls into a life of servitude tells her own story. Anne Marie Allen’s new book SERVE comes out in May. A THREAD 🧵 linktr.ee/annemarieallen
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Donal O'Donovan @donalodonovan.bsky.social · 07/01/2025
That's true but Ireland also has, historically, a pretty big soft spot for the right to write our own laws, including in cooperation with EU peers.
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David Darmofal @daviddarmofal.bsky.social · 06/01/2025
This is BIG news in the Catholic Church. Pope Francis is naming the U.S. Catholic Church's leading liberal bishop & leading intellectual, Cardinal Robert McElroy, as the new archbishop of Washington, D.C. Almost certainly a direct response to Trump's election. www.washingtonpost.com/religion/202...
washingtonpost.com
Vatican to name San Diego Cardinal Robert McElroy as new D.C. leader
McElroy, known for a pastoral approach to migrants and the LGBTQ+ community, will take over an archdiocese still bruised by a sex and mismanagement scandal.
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Donal O'Donovan @donalodonovan.bsky.social · 02/01/2025
Sun setting behind Woodcock Hill, Co Clare, looking west from Castleconnell.
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Donal O'Donovan @donalodonovan.bsky.social · 24/12/2024
Ok fellow procrastinators it's finally here. Christmas shopping day. Unless you go for online vouchers or a subscription, in which case you're probably fine till the morning.
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Anne-Sylvaine Chassany @chassnews.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
“A 50-year-old Saudi ex-Muslim who lives in East Germany, loves the AfD and wants to punish Germany for its tolerance towards Islamists — that really wasn’t on my radar.” Peter Neumann, expert in terrorism at King’s College
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Dr Emmet Oliver @dremmetoliver.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
2024 is about to fade away, hear all the business and economic parts being analysed by me, Donal O'Donovan of Independent.ie, and Catherine Sanz of the Businesspost.ie. 🎧🎧🎧 To be found at- www.smurfitschool.ie/podcast/
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Donal O'Donovan @donalodonovan.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
Whether you call it a pogrom or a boycott the outbreak of anti-semitism in Limerick in 1904 was pretty violent, sustained and targeted at the tiny Jewish community for their Jewishness. Describing it as 'a business boycott' is pretty shocking. www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2024...
irishtimes.com
Justine McCarthy: Irish Government needs to stay resolute in the face of Israel’s slanderous claims of anti-Semitism
Flinging the anti-Semitism slur around is an injustice to the many Israeli citizens who decry their government’s protracted killing spree in Gaza and the illegal settlements in the West Bank
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Zach Weinersmith @zachweinersmith.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
Wow. Amazing how Buddhist poets over 2000 years ago perfectly anticipated social media
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The Foggy Jew @hmcevansoneya.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
Closing my embassy, to own the people who want me to close my embassy
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Feljin Jose @feljin.ie · 14/12/2024
No. Slowing down public transport further to increase electric car sales would be, to be blunt, immensely stupid.
'A potential game changer' - Should EVs be allowed to use bus lanes?
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Donal O'Donovan @donalodonovan.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
Cheaper and more fun to simply take to the high seas and plunder the cannons of any passing 18th century man-o-war, surely?
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Donal O'Donovan @donalodonovan.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
Live horse, eat grass.
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Donal O'Donovan @donalodonovan.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
When you're out, you're out.
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Donal O'Donovan @donalodonovan.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
If Eoin Hayes is outside the Soc Dem camp can he nominate his own alternative for co-option onto his Dublin city council seat?
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